This invention generally relates to a printhead in an image producing apparatus and more particularly to a calibration station for adjusting output power of a printhead that writes onto an exposure-sensitive medium and to a method for calibrating output power of such a printhead.
Pre-press color proofing is a procedure that is used by the printing industry for creating representative images of printed material. This procedure avoids the high cost and time required to actually produce printing plates and also avoids setting-up a high-speed, high-volume, printing press to produce a single example of an intended image. In the absence of pre-press proofing, the intended image may require several corrections and be reproduced several times to satisfy customer requirements which result in reduced profits. By utilizing pre-press color proofing, time and money are saved.
A laser thermal printer having half-tone color proofing capabilities is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,708 titled xe2x80x9cLaser Thermal Printer With An Automatic Material Supplyxe2x80x9d issued Dec. 7, 1993, in the name of R. Jack Harshbarger et al. The Harshbarger et al., device is capable of forming an image on a sheet of thermal print receiver by transferring colorant from a roll (i.e., web) of colorant donor material to the thermal print receiver. This is achieved by applying a sufficient amount of thermal energy to the colorant donor material to form the image on the thermal print receiver. This apparatus generally comprises a material supply assembly; a lathe bed scanning subsystem, which includes a lathe bed scanning frame, a translation drive, a translation stage member, a laser printhead, and a vacuum imaging drum; and exit transports for exit of thermal print receiver and colorant donor material from the printer.
The Harshbarger et al. device writes an image using a plurality of laser disposed in an array at the laser printhead. In order to write the image, individual lasers are energized in coordination with imaging and timing signals to write the output image onto the donor material in a continuous swath. As is well known in the laser thermal printing art, there can be differences in output power from one laser to the next. A printer of this type can employ 20 or more lasers, each of which may vary from its neighbors in terms of the dependence of its output power upon wavelength. Because the achieved output density is dependent upon the applied power absorbed by the image-recording medium, imaging anomalies such as banding can result when lasers in the array emit different power levels, causing a print to be unacceptable for its intended purpose.
For printers of the type disclosed in the Harshbarger et al. patent, calibration procedures are used to compensate for laser-to-laser output power differences. Laser calibration procedures are also employed in the data recording art, such as for writing digital data onto optical disks. As some examples, U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,156 (Hurst, Fr.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,185,733 (Finkelstein, et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,659 (Call et al.) disclose techniques used to calibrate lasers in optical disk writing. However, for purposes of recording digital data, represented in sequences of binary 1/0 data, only two discrete levels of laser power are needed. In contrast, when writing image data using a device such as is disclosed in the Harshbarger et al. patent, output laser power is related to achievable density, so that power must be accurately adjustable over a range, wherein each discrete value within the range can be correlated to corresponding density of donor colorant transferred to the receiver. Even when applying or withholding only one level of laser power to expose a halftone image on an image-recording material whose image density varies with exposure, that applied power level must be set accurately to the intended value in order to render the image with fidelity.
There are detailed calibration procedures developed to systematically adjust the power output of each laser in order to minimize banding and related anomalies. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,921,221 and 5,323,179, Sanger et al., disclose use of a calibration station and sensor for laser calibration in a multichannel printer. The method disclosed in the Sanger et al. patents involves both direct measurement of laser power and measurement of densities for colorant output on a receiver medium. From the detailed description of the laser calibration process, it is clear that it would be advantageous to eliminate steps in the overall calibration procedure to simplify this procedure where possible.
While such methods developed for power calibration compensate for differences in laser output power, there is room for improvement. It has been observed that even if two writing lasers are very closely matched in terms of measured output power, the lasers may yet achieve different efficiencies in donor colorant transfer. It is known that the donor colorant exhibits more efficient transfer for some wavelengths of the light source than for others. Moreover, while each writing laser in the array is manufactured to emit wavelengths within a narrow range, there are differences in laser fabrication that result in diode lasers having slightly different wavelengths. For example, while the specified wavelength of each laser in an array may be 840 nm, nominal, the actual wavelengths obtained may range from 832 nm to 846 nm. It is known that each diode laser provides the substantial portion of its output within a narrow 1 nm band. Alternatives to compensate for wavelength effects, such as manufacturing diode lasers to within tighter wavelength tolerances or manufacturing a donor colorant medium that is less wavelength-dependent are very costly.
There are methods for tuning some types of lasers to adjust frequency, thereby adjusting laser output wavelength. As one example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,114, Jayaraman et al., discloses a tunable laser used in data communications. A feedback control loop for an optogalvanic glow-discharge modulator comprises beamsplitters and detectors used to control modulation of the output laser to achieve a desired wavelength. As part of the feedback loop, an interference filter is used to select that portion of the sensed feedback signal that is needed to achieve output frequency and wavelength tuning. These tuning procedures are not applicable to diode lasers, however, and maintenance of all emission at a specific wavelength is not required for the type of image-recording material used in imaging applications.
Interference filters have been used as part of a calibration feedback loop for laser frequency tuning control, as disclosed in the Jayaraman et al. patent noted above. Interference filters have also been used to isolate specific wavelength components of a sensor signal, such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,327, Watkins et al., for laser-based sensing during an arc welding operation. Interference filter transmission profiles have been adapted to isolate specific wavelengths for measurement by a sensor, but without adaptation to a response profile of an imaging medium.
As a result of wavelength dependence, an operator calibrating a printhead may be required to measure laser wavelength for each diode laser in an array and to compensate by making power adjustments corresponding to each wavelength. Alternatively, an operator may be forced to perform additional cycles of calibration, preparation, and measurement procedures, such as manually adjusting power output to achieve uniform density response. A radiation source may also change the wavelength distribution of its emitted power during exposure of an image, so that a suitably prepared feedback-power-controller would be desirable to maintain constant deposited energy in the image-recording medium. Thus, there is a need for a simple and inexpensive solution that allows a calibration procedure to adjust lasers for output power for a wavelength-sensitive image recording material.
There is a need for a printer having a calibration apparatus and method that accommodates differences in laser output wavelength and compensates for these differences in a manner corresponding to variability in wavelength-sensitive response of the image-recording medium.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printhead that is adapted to the wavelength-dependent response of an exposure-sensitive image recording medium.
It is another object of the present invention to simultaneously equalize the colorant transfer by all of the sources in a multiple-source printhead regardless of the distribution of wavelengths emitted by any single source or of the disparity among wavelengths emitted by different sources in the same printhead.
It is a further object of the present invention to adjust the output power of a printhead during printing and employ a feedback loop to maintain constant energy deposition in the exposure-sensitive medium if the distribution of emitted wavelengths changes.
According to one aspect of the present invention calibration station for a printhead adapted to provide a beam of electromagnetic radiation from a variable electromagnetic energy source onto a sensitive radiation medium, the calibration station incorporating a sensor disposed for sensing the beam provided by the printhead, wherein the sensor provides an output sensor signal indicative of the sensed power of the beam. A control circuit is adapted to accept the output sensor signal from the sensor and adjusts the variable electromagnetic energy source. A filter is disposed in the path of the beam between the printhead and sensor, adapted to transmit to the sensor a portion of incident electromagnetic radiation over a predefined range of wavelengths, dependent upon a measured response characteristic of the radiation-sensitive medium.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a printhead for an image producing apparatus applies a level of light energy to generate an image by transferring a donor colorant from a donor medium onto a receiver medium. A calibration apparatus allows measurement of light energy output. A control apparatus adjusts effective output light energy based on the measurement obtained. In a preferred embodiment, the printhead uses a plurality of lasers arranged in an array. Each laser output power can be separately adjusted in order to equalize the output power of the array.
A feature of the present invention is the design of a transmission profile for the optically absorptive filter or interference filter that compensates for wavelength-dependent sensitivity of an imaging medium. The absorptive filter having these characteristics thereby enables the accurate adjustment of each one of a plurality of light sources, in which each light source may emit light at a separate wavelength, such that adjusting each light source results in achieving uniform light energy absorbed by the portion of the imaging medium responsive to the exposing radiation.
An advantage of the present invention is that it allows a calibration procedure to measure the output power delivered by a light source at a specific wavelength in proportion to the effectiveness of output power at that specific wavelength, preferably summed over a range of wavelengths. As a result, an operator calibrating the printhead output power need not be concerned with wavelength differences between individual light sources.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it can be applied for reducing the overall amount of calibration work and time required by a technician when an imaging apparatus is first manufactured, or at any subsequent occasion, such as when a laser is replaced.
A further advantage of the present invention is that it can be employed in conjunction with a printhead-power feedback-control loop during the course of printing to maintain constant energy deposition in the exposure-sensitive image recording medium if the distribution of emitted wavelengths change.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described an illustrative embodiment of the invention.